Yesterday, at our hunt, we talked about how women dominate the sport at the lower levels but are often left off the podium at the highest competition. Well, Simone Blum (Germany) has just become the first woman to win the show jumping individual gold at the World Equestrian Games riding her longtime partner DSP Alice. The next highest placed woman was Laura Kraut (USA) who finished 10th.

As a side note, you can always tell when a woman show jumper is European because they typically wear their hair in a pony tail that dangles down from their helmet, rather than up inside of their helmet, held in place with several hairnets. Many US riders find this sloppy but I’m of the opinion that helmets fit better when there is no hair pushed up inside them and I like to see top riders espouse safer practices.